Vet sues food processing firm over demotion

[unhappycamper]

Vet sues food processing firm over demotion
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jun 13, 2008 6:05:30 EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An Army veteran has filed a lawsuit accusing a food processing company of harassing him over his military service and demoting him when he returned home.

Francisco Reyes, the plant’s former security director, said Wednesday that Goya de Puerto Rico Inc. violated the law that protects people who leave their jobs for military service. He seeks more than $2 million in damages in the lawsuit filed last month in U.S. district court.

The company’s general manager, Carlos Unanue, dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous and false” on Thursday. He said Goya reinstated Reyes at the same salary, with annual increases, when he returned to the plant near San Juan in January after a three-year tour.

Reyes, 28, said that on return, he was assigned to night shifts at a warehouse. He says he was harassed into resigning by managers who mocked him as “cannon meat” and told other employees not to speak with him.

He said he now earns half his old salary as a security guard at a government building.


Article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_discriminationlawsuit_061208/